Marlie's First Birthday!

I cannot believe my sweet angel is 1! I love both of my children more than you can imagine (unless you have children yourself and then you can relate of course) but God blessed me with the sweet little girl that I've always dreamed of. Now...when she was born that's not how the story went. My epidural didn't take so they knocked me out. I woke up hours later and Doug kept telling me that I already had the baby and showed me a picture on the digital camera. It was the funniest looking baby I've ever seen so as the room spun I just closed my eyes and hoped I'd wake up again later to find my snow white. Well no such luck....she was pretty funny-looking. But that was then and this is now! My Snow White is here and she is an angel. Doug says she's sweet but a bit feisty like me. I think she looks exactly like my baby pictures! Everyone has always said that I look like my Mom and for some reason I hope Marlie looks like us too. Of course I hope she has the body structure of Doug's family.....you know they are "those" people that never spend a minute working out and eat cookies, chips and drink cokes and they look like they spend their lives on fabulous diets and in their home gym. Anyway...I guess my Mom and I have a special bond and I just pray that Marlie will one day think the world of me like I do of my Mom!

We celebrated Marlie's birthday a little early over Memorial Day weekend in San Antonio. Thank you to Doug's Mom for doing everything to prepare for this once in a lifetime event! Marlie doesn't seem to be much of a partier so I guess that's a good sign. She finally perked up as everyone was leaving. The rest of us had a great time on her behalf! Her favorite twins Hayden and Cale were there along with all her cousins! It was Marlie's first time in the pool this summer but we don't have a pic. My fault.

We celebrated her real birthday at home. This was my first real day off from work so I had this great idea to be Miss Pamela Homemaker and make a great dinner and semi homemade cake for her. Well if you know me at all I cannot cook to save my life (my poor husband - he grins and bares it sometimes and that's one of the reasons I love him). The chicken wasn't cooking right in the oven and have you ever frosted a chocolate cake with white icing? Well I don't like white icing but needed it for decorating purposes so this was a first. I guess there's a secret to doing it right that only 95% of the women in the world know and I'm part of the 5%. I've never liked being just part of the crowd. Anyway it turned out pretty ghetto and I'll go ahead and let you see it so you can have a good laugh too! I planned on making a really cool cake for Matt's party in a few months but I might just have to let the experts handle that one. I've always said being smart is not about what you know or what you know how to do, but knowing where to find the answers and who to ask for help. JR Goodies makes a damn good cake.

So at 1 what are we doing? No walking yet. Not even interested. I think I'm to blame because she's either in my arms, in a stroller or in her highchair. She doesn't touch the ground much but she's a great crawler so we'll just take it one step at a time. She says pretty much everything except "Momma". I think she even said elephant the other day. But no "Momma". When I ask where is "Momma" she touches her nose. So I guess I'm chopped liver but one day she will love me...then she'll hate me when I tell her she can't ever date, but hopefully she'll love me again! As far as size she's pretty petite but still falls in the 75% for height. And she is getting more beautiful each day. Now Matt is what I call a "looker" and has been since he was pretty young. I think it's his eyes that get me and now he's growing into that big head of his! There's a little girl in his class who says she's going to marry Matt. I told her Mom that we have some work to do to get his act together over the next 20 years but he'll be ready and we love Edi (and her gorgeous hair) and her parents too. Are arranged marriages really a bad idea? I think not. Send in your application before it's too late.

Okay it's Father's Day weekend at our house so I should get to bed. I'll let Doug sleep in this weekend because he deserves it. Happy Father's Day to all the awesome Dads out there like Doug! Although I doubt any Dads are reading this.